How to decorate dog and cat cupcakes

Pets and cake – two of our favourite things rolled into one! A bake sale can be a great way of fundraising for us and it’s even better if you can make your tasty cakes look like pets! Just remember to keep curious paws off these sweet treats…

If, like us, you’ve got baking fever right now, why not turn your talents to help raise some vital funds for PDSA? No matter what level of baker you are – or if you buy your cakes pre-made! – check out our videos below on how to decorate your cakes and look like a professional:

How to decorate a dog cake

How to decorate a cat cake

Instructions

To decorate your cakes, you will need:

• Cupcakes (you can either make them yourself, or buy pre-made ones from a shop)
• Ready to roll icing (in various colours!)
• Icing sugar (for dusting)
• Buttercream
• Round cutters (one big enough to cover your cupcake, the other very small for the details!)
• A sharp knife
• Rolling pin
• Piping bag
• A bit of water and a brush

Method:

1. Pipe buttercream on the top of your cupcake – this is so the icing has something to stick to!
2. Lightly dust a clean surface with icing sugar. Roll out the colour you want for the face and cut out a circle using your large cutter. Gently put on top of buttercream and smooth down.
3. Next, roll out the colours you are using for the details on the face (this will depend whether you are decorating a cat or dog!). Use your smaller round cutter for the cheeks or muzzle (the white circles in the videos!) and brush a little water onto the face to help stick them down.
4. For the rest of the details on the mouth, you can either use smaller cutters like we have or (very carefully!) cut your own out using a knife. For the dog, we just popped a black circle on for the nose. For the cat, we used a small pink circle for the nose and a little teardrop shaped cutter to make the tongue. Again, use a little water to stick these down.
5. For the eyes, you’ll need to poke small dips above the nose area. You can do this using the end of chopstick or something similar. Be careful not to poke too hard as you don’t want to make a hole in the icing!
6. Next, use black icing in a piping bag to pipe the eyes and whiskers if you are making a cat!
7. Finally, for the ears, you can either use cutters or mould them yourself. Cut the shape you want out of the colour you want (you’ll need to use two colours for the cat – one the same as the face and the other pink!). Then stick these to the face with a little water.
8. Voila! Enjoy your pet-themed cupcakes!

We hope you enjoy making your pet-themed cupcakes! Remember to download our free resources and visit the pages below for more information on how you can help PDSA by fundraising for us:

Looking to make a tasty treat for your pets?

Obviously our pets can't eat cupcakes for people because they could upset their stomachs, which is why we have special recipes to make dog and cat treats yourself!